Best Solar Battery Comparison 2024. Enphase, Tesla, SolarEdge, SunPower, Franklin, Panasonic

I wished I had known about SolarEdge inverter unreliability before we purchased back in 2020. We've gone through four units and lost more than a month's worth of usage, so far. Do you have any suggestions, or are we stuck with this kind of unreliability?

Tesla has changed to having to go through an installer. After waiting two years Tesla passed me off to a local installer who wants almost double the cost that Tesla quoted.

Fails to explain, or even understand what “great” net metering is, or for who. He’s part of the problem, not the solution.

Sunpower is the worst

Every battery is DC they just separate the inverter

Tesla is a scam company

I'm getting 2 5Ps

Great content, I just wanted to add a small piece of information. The new mini split hvac systems use (hoping I word this right) an inverter compressor that spools up. There is no current spike when the ac pump fires up.

Just about to get my single IQ5P battery and solar panels to work. Great to hear you like the 5P battery!

Rural SDGE customer. Have two solar systems. Small Enphase IQ7 10 panel, and newer 27 panel system with SolarEdge inverter. Been on the battery fence for years. First it was the critical loads panel limitations and now the high costs. Plus the constant "game changing" tech every few months makes one hesitant to jump in. Now there is this meter collar thing to wait for.

Would’ve been good to see the Generac batteries on your chart.
Thanks for the discussion. Good stuff.

Hello Julian and all, I'm in the market for a solar system and I was just told by a local installer that if I wanted battery-backup with my system I wouldn't be able to use micro-inverters. I know you're an advocate for micro-inverters so figured I would ask here first. Is this true for all cases or might it just be an issue with the inverters they sell? I appreciate your content by the way.

We are stuck with PG&E and they are about to raise rates. Again! We need much better and less expensive batteries than are available right now in order to break PG&E’s stranglehold over power generation and storage. In California, folks need about 10 kWh for the house, 10 kWh per occupied room, 20 kWh if you live in an especially hot or cold area, and 20 kWh per EV. Let’s say 50 kWh for an average home. Big, affordable house batteries are the smartphones of home and small businesses power. We won’t realize how much we needed them until we have them installed. A 50 kWh battery for around $10,000 will ruin the day for the price gouging utility monopoly executives. That is what we need.

batterys, with integrated microinverters? how nice, i like this solution, never heard of it
Best AC Coupled argument is, that in summer, you have too much power anyway, so, you can afford it easily
In winter? ok,... 5% more sunpower is not enough anyway

Julian, I'm thinking of installing Enphase 5P batteries into an attached garage that is not heated or cooled. Are there operational temperature concerns with the 5P in a room that may range in temp from 30-100 degrees? Thanks for the help in advance.

Leave it to an LA solar guy to totally ignore Signature Solar, a top solar company!

Once you have enough battery to avoid importing during high tariff times, a second battery has a hard time earning its keep by offsetting low tariff energy.

For me, the overriding and often not talked about feature of the battery is the algorithm of when to charge and discharge. Right now, SolarEdge is quite lame, but they are improving. They do not define the various modes of operation (like what is the difference between maximize self consumption and minimize import???). They have a mode of charging the battery with all of the solar (up to 5 kW) until the battery is full, but then the house has to import if the sun isn't providing 5 kW + house usage. How about charge on excess solar? Then they have a Time of Use profile which is a little smarter, but still buggy. So software is nearly as important as the battery type in my opinion.

Really good info!!

Franklin warranty is 70% at 12 Years... FYI

I wonder what your opinion on Sol-Ark is. I know they are expensive, and they are hybrid inverters, but there is some level of redundancy if you have two or three of them tied in. The Sol-Ark's can handle massive capacities and both AC and DC coupled solar. They do not include the battery... so you would pair the Sol-Ark with a rack or two of (for example ) EG4 LifePower4 batteries (51.2V LFP, 5kWh per rack mount, 6 units per rack for 30 kWh per rack). Everything is basically bussed together (except for the DC coupled solar which goes into dedicated MPPTs), so there is a great deal of redundancy.

Though I will note that I'm sure even the enphase battery has just one BMS... and it is the BMS which is the weak link in any lithium battery.

What if I don't have Enphase micro inverters on the roof?

Love your content. Went solar in southern AZ in the summer of 2023. I will wait about 10 years before retrofitting batteries (before my RCP rate lock expires). Hopefully the next decade will bring about even more innovation in batteries with new chemistry, higher capacity, greater longevity, and lower prices. But if I had to buy today, the DC-coupled offering from Panasonic Evervolt would be a strong contender.

I would not be surprissed if you were getting some sort of commission or benefit for pushing Enphase products so much and specially criticizing SolarEdge in this exagerated manner. I know Enphase has these kinds of economical incentives for installers in several countries. Btw, I have a SolarEdge system at home with a HV SolarEdge Home Battery and has been working perfectly fine since I installed it over a year ago now.

Need to add Sol-ark

Honestly, I think this is one of my favorite info videos you have created. Thanks so much

Why not include Generac?

Julian Can you please test and review the EG4-PowerPro battery from Signature Solar, looks like an affordable solution to charge tesla at night. I would need to buy 3 batteries which at $10,000 dls is over my budget, in the other hand 3 EG4s would only cost me 12,000. In california with NEM3 is not really a good deal to sell power during the day and buy it 3 times as much at night when I get back from work. so the logic is to produce power and store during the day. but the batteries are too expensive. Thanks Julian in advance!

Do you cover solar installs in NC?

Power wall 3 will be a game changer, great solution for TOU markets

Good stuff! But I would have included a column for price per KWH... and perhaps factoring in typical cost of installation per KWH, in the case where some are more costly to install than others, for whatever reason.

Wow, great info about the meter collar! I didn't know what was going to make blackout power availability more affordable, but I figured something was going to come along. I assume that will also make the iQ8 inverters work in their "sunlight backup" mode, or is that different?

I hate that it's illegal for us to go off-grid. I mean, I understand it, but there should be SOME option, even if paying your way out.

❤

Lola made a cameo at the end🤣🤣🤣

Julian will these metered collar work universal for all systems or will they be system specific?

These comments about SolarEdge inverters just don’t hold water. If they really are expected to last only 10-12 years, then SolarEdge would go bankrupt with the 12 year warranty they offer. Most manufacturers can’t afford warranty replacement of even 5% of their products and stay in business. A 10-12 year expected life with a 12 year warranty would mean that Solar Edge would be replacing 80% or more of their inverters under warranty. This would drive them to bankruptcy, yet they are one of the longest tenured solar equipment providers. The claims in this video just don’t hold water from a business perspective. For most products the expected life is at least twice as long as the warranty period, unless the company either doesn’t plan to be in business long enough to have to honor their warranty or they are a poor company that simply refuses to honor warranty claims. I haven’t heard either with regard to SolarEdge.

Batteries and solar cells are DC devices. A design that takes DC from the panel to the battery is the smartest way to go by far. The issue with central inverter reliability is a different problem that needs to be solved for a number of reasons. Enphase’s architecture is simply suboptimal when batteries are desired. If Enphase wants to stay with distributed inverters, then they should offer distributed batteries such that each panel has its own battery as well as battery charger/inverter.

Hi Julian, great info and very well explained.
Regarding the FranklinWH battery, my understanding is that it has continous power of 5kW (not 7.5kW) and Degregation Warranty of 70% @ year 12 (not 10). Please confirm.
Do you have any experience with FranklinWH and what is your recommendation, compared to the Enphase 5P batteries. For example - 3 FranklinWH aPower vs. 8 Enphase 5P batteries?

Appreciate it man, i’m in AZ and I do sales. I’m done with money hungry companies.